Preparation
by SirenAlpha
Summary: AU Audrey and Ivan have been dating for two and a half years and are about to graduate from High School. How much can that one night alone a few weeks ago affect their plans? Fem!EnglandxRussia
1. Chapter 1

So, there isn't enough Fem!EnglandxRussia for my taste so I've decided to write more of it and post it.

Names are as follows:  
Scotland-Kyle  
England-Audrey  
Wales-Tristan  
Russia-Ivan  
France-Francis

Also, because this is an AU all of the sibling relationships will be better/closer than they are in canon.

* * *

Kyle looked up from his book when he heard the knock on his door. "What do you want?" he snapped, expecting his mother to peek out from behind the door to check if he was reading something appropriate or something ridiculous like that.

"Kyle?" he heard a feminine voice call out.

It wasn't his mother, but his little sister. She wasn't really little any more at eighteen. He was only here, back at home in his old bedroom, for her graduation. He'd been avoiding home ever since he had left university, but his mum always managed to drag him back for major holidays and each of his younger siblings' graduations. He sighed, closed the book he had only been half reading, set it down on his old desk, and went over to the door.

He opened it and was quite shocked to see his little sister looking anxious, and possibly a bit scared. She never looked like that, especially not around him. By the age of five she had mastered a penetrating glare and a severe scowl and has been dishing them out gratuitously to him ever since. He was a little concerned to see this other expression on her. He was certain it wasn't caused by him snapping at her, but he still felt a bit guilty. "What's the matter? You didn't burn the stove again did you?" he asked, much more gently. He was half hoping she really had burnt the stove with her terrible cooking abilities.

She shook her head no. She wasn't making eye contact with him. Despite all the years he and his brothers had spent picking on her, she had never looked away. Even after her failed attempts at getting back at them she had never broke eye contact. He could feel his stomach sinking lower. He didn't feel up to the job if something serious had happened to her. Out of all three of her brothers, he thought he was the one she was least likely to go to. Tristan was the one who was decent to her. He was also better with sorting out people problems.

She closed the door behind her before slowly forcing herself to look up at him. "I have to tell you something," she said, seriously.

"Yeah?" he asked, having already guessed that much. He felt slightly sick to his stomach and sat back down on his old bed. After a moment's deliberation, she quickly joined him on the bed. She was wringing her hands, not looking at him again, and her eyebrows seemed permanently furrowed.

"I'm pregnant," she answered slowly and softly.

"What?" he asked in a near whisper, completely thrown by what she said. His sister was a little goody two shoes, straight laced and all of that. He'd been gone away too long if she had sex. He wondered what her long term boyfriend had done, if he was the father. Now that she was alright with premarital sex, he no longer had any idea what else she was alright with.

"I'm pregnant," she said again, this time higher pitched. She was crying now, and she wrapped her arms around him, needing to be comforted. "It was only once,"

"Audrey," he said her name soothingly, wrapping his arms around her as well. He let her sob. He rubbed her back, and nuzzled her hair hoping that it would calm her down. She cried for several minutes, but even after she had stopped crying she didn't pull away. When she finally did, she said, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," he said, not sure if that was the right thing to say at all. He wiped away the salty tears still on her cheeks with his thumbs. He sighed before starting in on the questions he needed to ask. She clearly wasn't going to tell their parents for a while, so he was going to have to help her for now. "Audrey, who's the father?" he asked as gently as he could.

"Ivan," she answered quietly, staring down at her hands.

"Oh thank god," Kyle said releasing a breath, "If you had said Francis."

"Ew," she said near shouting and looking horribly disgusted, "How could you even say that?"

She smacked his arm for good measure, and he was relieved to see the return of her trademark scowl. "Just making sure you were alright," he answered removing his hands from her cheeks.

"I'm fine, just pregnant," she informed him hotly, crossing her arms and raising her head.

"Did you tell Ivan?"

"No," she answered, slumping a little.

"Are you going to keep it?" he asked placing a hand comfortingly on her shoulder.

"I don't know," she told him truthfully. She slumped even further, "I was going to ask Ivan about it."

"Ask soon then. Prenatal care is important, Tristan doesn't shut up about it," he reminded her.

She chuckled a little. Tristan was a doctor nut. If it has anything having to with hospitals and medicine he knows about it. He had been so excited when he had left to study medicine. Kyle smiled at his sister, feeling even more relieved now that she had chuckled. He was still going to kick Ivan's ass one day, but at least it wasn't someone else who had gotten his baby sister pregnant.

"I know, I know, I'm thinking of telling him tomorrow. I just wanted you to know first," she admitted shyly, patting his arm lightly with her hand.

Kyle felt quite touched by her admission. He was going to lord it over Tristan from now on. Of course, not where Audrey could overhear him, she wasn't supposed to know that she could turn any one of them into big softies. "If Ivan does want to keep it, are you sure you'll be alright?" he asked cautiously. He was well aware that she didn't enjoy being small considering her brothers were all at least six feet in height.

"What do you mean?" she asked, sounding suspicious and raising an eyebrow.

"I mean your hips," he explained awkwardly, scratching the back of his head, "You're very thin. You get it from mum."

"Then it should be alright," she retorted, flashing him a small smile.

"Yeah, but she was twenty four when she had me," he reminded her. It had also been an incredibly long birth. After a few drinks, their mother had once confessed to him how close each child had brought her to death. She made him swear never to tell his siblings. He wouldn't have wanted to even if she hadn't.

"I'll deal with it when the time comes," she said with a sigh, smoothing out the wrinkles on her shirt. He noticed the way her hands lingered over her stomach.

"Alright, but make sure you have a plan, and talk to Ivan. Soon, tomorrow, please," he leaned over, onto her, the same way he usually did whenever he tried to make her do something for him.

"I will, get off," she promised while trying to push the twenty one year old away.

"Fine," he said sitting upright, "go to bed, it's past your bedtime."

"It is not," she said as she stood from the bed.

"It is when you're pregnant," he had muttered as she crossed his room.

He knew she had heard it when, as she exited, she didn't stop herself from sticking her tongue out at him.

* * *

And that's that. I'm not sure when I'll be updating, but the next chapter will feature Ivan. Please review!


	2. Chapter 2

These are probably the most intense 3,000 words I've ever written. Appreciate them. I meant to get this up over the weekend, but if you read this you'll probably understand why that didn't happen.

Names:  
Ukraine - Katyusha  
Belarus - Natasha  
Parents are unnamed, but they aren't like nations or anything so they're OCs I guess.

* * *

Ivan woke to the sound of his father shouting his name. His room was bright with the morning light as he had slept in for once. He pushed himself into a sitting position as he wondered why his father was calling him. "Ivan!" his father yelled to him again, "Your girlfriend is here!"

He shot out of his bed hearing that and almost left the room without proper clothes on. It had been warm the night before so he'd worn only a pair of boxers and an old t-shirt to bed. He quickly stripped off what he was wearing and pulled on clean boxers, jeans, and t-shirt. Then, he ran down stairs. His girlfriend was standing in the front hall next to his father, and they were both waiting for him. She looked beautiful. She had her hair up in a ponytail, and was dressed casually for the weekend. He wanted to kiss her, but he knew she wouldn't let him with his father standing right there.

"Sorry," he apologized as he walked over to her, "I was sleeping in."

"It's fine," she told him, smiling up at him.

"I'm going to talk to your mother," his father told them as he left the room to leave them alone. Audrey chuckled, and Ivan smiled. He appreciated that his father let them be and trusted them together.

He turned, then, and wrapped his arms around Audrey, holding her close. He liked the way she fit into his arms and how he could place his head on top of hers. He felt her press closer and place her arms around him. "Could you please not be love-y dove-y in sight of the living room?" his younger sister, Natasha, asked.

He lifted his head to glare at her where she was sitting on the couch, off to his right and behind him. She had ruined the moment already and glared back at him. His elder sister, Katyusha, tapped her arm and said, "Leave them alone. They're really cute."

Natasha shook her head in disgust.

"Let's go," Ivan said, releasing Audrey from his hold. He took her hand and led her up to his bedroom. It was a bit messy, but he had long ago stopped being embarrassed about it. After he had closed the door behind them, he gave her a kiss. He pulled away to see her blushing and smiling shyly. He had thought that after having sex she would stop turning red at all of his displays of affection, but it had been a few weeks since then and her blushing hadn't seemed to have abated. He didn't mind. He thought it was cute.

"When was the last time you shaved?" she asked as she walked further into his room.

"Thursday," he answered, rubbing his cheek. He could already feel the beginnings of a five o'clock shadow. He wasn't too bothered by it, but he knew any amount of facial hair bothered her.

"I can tell," she told him, picking up the shirt he had pulled off less than a minute earlier from the floor. She gave him a look, and he knew that she had figured out that he'd worn it to bed as it was probably still warm. She tossed it into his laundry hamper before going around and picking up a few other items of clothing he had carelessly left lying around. When she began to hang up properly in his closet the jackets and sweatshirts he'd left on the back of his chair or hanging on his bed posts, he got a bad feeling. She was starting to clean his room, and the last time she'd done that it had been the evening before finals started the semester previous when she'd come over to study with him.

"What are you here for?" he asked, hoping that would be enough to coax her into talking about what she was worrying herself over.

"I want to talk to you about something," she said, and he knew she was being deliberately vague.

"What's wrong?" he asked, walking over to her and grabbing her hands before she started trying to sort the papers on his desk. She had done that before and had organized them completely differently than he had. He almost hadn't been able to find the notes he had needed the day after for a test. "Has something happened?" he asked, brushing his thumbs across her knuckles.

"Yes, I, er," she said before looking down and gripping his hands tighter. It felt like his mouth had gone dry and his stomach had begun coiling around itself. "I'm pregnant," she finished, looking up at him again with a guilty and worried expression.

"That's…" and that was all he was able to get out. His stomach's reaction felt warranted. He didn't know what to say, what to tell her. He felt like they were back to the beginning of their relationship where he had tip toed on every word he had said to her, doing his best to say the right thing. This was something a couple was meant to celebrate, but this was possibly the absolute worst timing. They were about to graduate, to go off to college at separate schools, and they had absolutely no capacity to pay for a child.

"Awful, terrible, disastrous," she listed off dryly and he felt a sharp pang of guilt. She clammed up and distanced herself whenever she was stressed about something and, generally, tries to mother him. At least she was good at that, mothering. He didn't think he was capable of being a father at any point in his life. He had done this, he realized. He was the one that had gotten her pregnant, and now she was stressed and distraught. He had screwed everything over.

"I want to say wonderful, but this isn't the time," he told her honestly, fumbling around for anything else to say to her, "What about college and everything else?"

"I know," she told him, letting some of her underlying frustration with the situation show through, "We would need the money to take care of this child, but in order to make enough money we would need to go to school."

"I can't believe this happened," he said, not understanding how they could be so unlucky. They had good grades, though Audrey's were definitively better than his, and they were on varsity sports teams, hockey and tennis. They had never done anything illegal, they had never slept around, and they had the healthiest relationship of anyone he knew in his age group. They make one mistake and then every parent's worst nightmare happens.

"I know, but it has, and we need to talk about this," she said, and he could tell she had calmed herself down. She was at least doing a better job of coping than he was. He wasn't even the one pregnant and he felt like he was going to hurl. She looked him in the eye and told him in her most serious tone, "We need to discuss our options."

"What have you thought about?" he asked, guiding them towards the bed so they could sit down and talk. He needed something definite to think about. All he could envision was a landslide through all of their aspirations and alarm bells clanging in the back of his head. He didn't want this to be happening, but it was and he was floundering for options. They sat down next to each other and kept their hands clasped.

"I can get an abortion, put it up for adoption, or we could keep it," she told him, looking at their hands rather than his eyes. She adjusted her hand so that she could lace her fingers between his. It felt like she was starting to develop a death grip. "It's too late for emergency contraceptives so that isn't an option," she concluded.

"I don't really like any of them," he told her, rubbing his chin as he thought it over. Watching the video in health class on birth had been horrific enough. Abortion was just as bad, and the thought of it made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Giving up the child for adoption could just set the child up for some terrible situation with someone else. At least if it was with them they would know what was happening to them and be sure to take care of them to the best of their ability. He just wanted the problem to go away.

"Neither do I," she responded, giving his hand a squeeze.

"I think I like the last one best," he told her slowly, and this time he was the one avoiding her gaze, "It's our child. We made it, and if you do give birth, I want us to keep it, not give it away to someone else."

"I know, I know," she mumbled, and he could feel her hand shaking despite how tightly it was gripping his, "but that means a full pregnancy, and child birth, and decades of caring for it, and, and, and,"

"I understand," he said, cutting off her rambling and swallowing down all the terrible images and horror stories he knew of teenage mothers giving birth. He said that, but it didn't feel real, didn't feel true. He had no idea what to do about this. He was wondering why she had even come to talk to him in the first place to distract himself from the sense of doom settling in the center of his chest before he again realized that this was his fault. He had gotten her pregnant. It was his kid, too, and also his problem. "But there isn't a good option," he said, trying hard to just not tear out a chunk of his hair.

"You're shaking," she told him quietly.

"No," he said, "You are."

They both looked down at their hands. Their hands were visibly shaking and Audrey's knuckles had turned white. Ivan supposed that it didn't matter whose hands were shaking; they were both going to be terrified of whichever choice they made. "We need to at least decide on whether or not I'm going to abort it," she said, sounding too calm for the situation.

"Why are you asking me?" he finally asked, incredulous and feeling like his voice had risen too high.

"It's yours too, you deserve to have some input in the decision," she told him.

"I don't know what to do," he admitted to her, feeling some of the coiling in his stomach loosen, "It's your body. Do what you want."

"I can't just do what I want," she snapped at him, sounding like she was about to sob, "I have options and I have to pick the right one. I need your help to figure this out."

"I can't help you," he told her, shaking his head, "It's not-I don't-I don't know which one's best. It's my kid, but it's in you. I'm not the one that's pregnant. Just do what you think is best!"

"Don't shout at me!" she yelled back at him and digging her nails into his hand, her voice was on the edge of breaking, "I can't deal with you yelling at me. I can't do it. I need to be calm and decide on something, and I can't have you yelling at me."

"Audrey," he pleaded with her, "It's not a math problem. You can't just work it out and find the right answer."

"I can't treat it any other way," she told him sorrowfully, and taking her hand from his to cradle her head. He felt horrible seeing her so upset. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed a kiss to her head.

"I'm sorry," he told her, rubbing her back and trying to calm her down, "Which option do you like the most?"

"Is it," she began before removing her hands from her face to look up at him, "Is it wrong for me to want to keep it?"

"No, but why?" he asked, pulling away so they could talk properly. He thought she would have favored abortion the most. It would get rid of the problem the quickest. He would feel guilty about it if they had done that, but he was certain he would have been able to get over it.

"It'd feel wrong to get rid of it like that, to kill it," she said then paused and bit her lip, "It's our baby. We made it, and we made it because we love each other. I couldn't kill that."

"Then don't," he said, feeling like the bottom half of his stomach was disappearing, "but think of what we'll have to do if we keep it."

"I know," she said, "It's too much. I don't want to give birth and then give it away, though. What good would that do me? I don't want to go through all that pain and have nothing to show for it."

"Keep it then," he told her, feeling exhausted and ready to go along with whichever choice she made, "If you think you'd be happiest with keeping it then do it."

"But," she began before biting her lip and looking away. It was the face she made whenever they went over a difficult question in psych class last year.

"No buts," he said, "You can figure that other stuff out in the months you have left before it's born. If you feel that having it and keeping it will be best then do it."

"Do you want it?" she asked him, staring into what felt like his soul with those green eyes of hers and looking genuinely frightened, "If you don't want a child then I'm not going to have it. You're going to have to help me pay for it if I do have it, and I'm not going to make you take on that burden if you'll end up only hating the baby."

He didn't know what to say. He wanted children, but not now. He wanted a steady job and income, a wife, and a house first. He wanted Audrey happy, though, and if this was her choice then maybe it was for the best. They could work it out, take things a step at a time. They'd have to tell their families, but maybe they could do it. He reflected for a moment on how he'd feel if she got an abortion and it didn't go over well. He could only think it would be a thousand times worse than her keeping it. They would both be giving up so much, but what if it turned out to be worth it? Like she said, it was their child, something they'd accidently created, but out of love for each other. He didn't want to take that from her if she wanted it, even if this wasn't the point in their lives they should be having a child.

He decided to take the risk and told her, "Keep it. I don't know what to expect from all of this, but maybe we'll end up better than we think we will. I'll try and help out as best I can. We'll have to tell our parents soon if we're really going to go through with this."

"I know," she said, sounding relieved and looking better than she had a moment ago, "I already told Kyle so he'll be able to help break the news."

"You told Kyle before me?" he asked, astonished. He was her boyfriend, and he was the one who'd gotten her pregnant. He thought he would have been told before anyone else. No wonder she had been so calm, he had thought bitterly, she'd already had gone through telling someone she was pregnant. He forced himself to remember that some boyfriends were kept out of the loop entirely.

"I was scared, Ivan," she confessed, "I didn't know how you would react. I mean, I know we've talked about kids, but this is too soon. I thought you might get mad at me. Kyle, I knew would help, and I needed to know I at least had his support before I talked to you."

"You thought I would get mad?" he asked, feeling both wronged and guilty. He hadn't felt anything close to anger. He'd say his initial reaction had been closer to anguish. He couldn't blame her, though. Both their parents would be furious as soon as they learned. After all, all their elder siblings had made it through senior year without any pregnancies.

"I don't know," she said, shaking her head, "I was mad for a short time after I found out. I thought that it shouldn't have happened to me. I still think that."

"It shouldn't have," he agreed with her immediately, running a hand down through her hair, "You don't deserve it."

"It doesn't matter what I deserve," she told him with a sigh, "It's happened anyways."

They both jumped when they heard a knock on the door. Ivan looked over to her to see if she was alright with letting probably one of his sisters in, and she nodded. "Come in," he called out; giving no hint as to what they had been discussing or the tailspin he felt he had just been subjected to.

Katyusha opened the door and poked her head into the room. "Mom wanted to know if you've had breakfast yet, Audrey," she informed her.

"I had some, but I'm fine with a little more if she's already started cooking," she answered. Ivan knew that his mother had. Once he'd told her that none of the Kirklands were capable of cooking, she believed it was her duty to at least make sure that the youngest Kirkland was fed properly. He had been in the crossfire multiple times when Audrey felt guilty as she thought she had been forcing his mother to cook while his mother felt guilty when she didn't take an opportunity to feed Audrey something healthy.

"She has. I'll tell her you're still hungry," Katyusha said as she moved to leave.

"I'll help with the dishes," Audrey told her as she hopped down from Ivan's bed and moved towards the door. Setting the table and helping clean up after had been Audrey's solution to being fed practically every time she came over.

Ivan didn't move immediately, thinking over how everything was going to change. That landslide through their aspirations had landed them in a place surrounded by fog and without lights. He tried to estimate about roughly how much they would have to sacrifice for this child, but couldn't do it. He did make the decision to mentally move all the money he had been saving for an engagement ring into savings for their child. Audrey wouldn't want it anyways. No matter what he'd say to her, she would always think he would be marrying her for their child and not for her.

He left his room and headed down for breakfast.

* * *

So yeah, that's chapter two. It's amazing how different they are here than they are in "Marriage". I hope it doesn't mean they're out of character, just that I've accurately represented the same two characters in two entirely different situations. They are in a different place in their relationship, have had different life experiences, and have different problems. They're teenagers here, rather than mature adults/nations. I think that's my favorite thing about fanfiction. It's testing your ability to accurately understand a character from a canon and then interpret and represent that same character in a multitude of situations while still keeping them recognizable.

I hope you've enjoyed, and please review!


	3. Chapter 3

So here's the next chapter, beta-ed by KorosuKa.

* * *

"Hey, have you guys heard?" Alfred asked as he set down his lunch tray at his usual table. His friends were already seated as they all brought lunches from home. Francis was on his right with Gilbert on the other side of him. Matthew and Antonio were across from them on the opposite side of the table.

"About Audrey?" Francis asked, "Yeah."

"I heard it," Gilbert added in, raising his hand up.

"I haven't," Matthew said, "What happened?"

"I heard that she was pregnant," Alfred answered with a shrug. He felt bad that she was being hit by such a terrible rumor, but there was only a few days of school left for anyone to worry about it. It's not like it could be true anyways.

"What, no way," he responded, setting down his food and gaping at him.

"We heard it too," Francis said gesturing to himself, Gilbert, and Antonio. The two other boys nodded in confirmation.

"Heard it twice, actually," Antonio said before eating a bite of his food.

"From who?" Matthew asked, "Who would even think that that's true?"

"A lot of people, apparently," Alfred said with a shrug. He had had the same reaction, but it seemed like everyone knew about it and believed it. He wasn't sure where they had gotten the info originally, but it spread like it was true with practically everyone saying so and talking about it. It was too ridiculous to believe, though. Someone was probably just having a field day.

"Who's the baby daddy then?" Matthew asked with a slight frown, looking skeptical, unimpressed, and unconvinced. He was taking it a little seriously, in Al's opinion, but he was making a fair point.

"Are you kidding?" Gilbert asked, "It's Ivan, of course. Just look at them!"

They all looked over to where the boy was pointing to see Ivan and Audrey sitting together a table over. The sitting together wasn't new, Ivan's arm wrapped protectively around her was. They weren't a very flirty or overly affectionate couple and the only way they exhibited couple behavior was the amount of time they spent together and when they occasionally held hands. They hadn't promoted their get together sophomore year so no one had really known they had been dating until a year after they'd started going out. It had taken Alfred three months to figure out they were dating, and he had talked to Audrey daily in English class.

"Hell," Gilbert continued a little too loudly, "if any other guy had gotten anywhere close to having sex with Audrey, Ivan would've cut off their dick before they even got their pants off. Remember when he almost bit off Al's head for hugging her for too long, or some crap like that?"

Alfred frowned while Francis and Antonio laughed and nodded and Matthew tried to subtly hide his grin. He had had a slight crush on Audrey at the time and he hadn't quite realized that she and Ivan were seriously dating each other and that he had had no chance. He had talked to her at the beginning of junior year, thinking that they might've broken up over the summer. They hadn't. Unfortunately, it had happened right after Ivan had had his growth spurt. The experience had quashed all of his romantic feelings for the girl and had lost him a sizable portion of his dignity.

"I thought we were never going to talk about that," Alfred said irritably, violently munching on a few fries.

"We'll try not to, but it couldn't be helped this time," Francis told him with a friendly nudge to his arm.

"Yeah, yeah, sure it couldn't," he mumbled grumpily.

"Have you actually asked either of them if she's pregnant?" Matthew asked, thankfully bringing the focus away from Alfred's humiliation.

"No," they all answered with a few shrugs and head shakes thrown in.

"Then why don't you?" he asked before taking a bite out of his sandwich.

"I'd rather be shanked in the kidney," Francis said and shook his head, "Actually, I think if I asked that's what would happen. You know we only argue whenever we talk to each other."

"Then, Al, why don't you ask her?" he asked, giving him a pointed look.

"But, I, that'd be really weird," he said, stumbling over his words and then stuffing food in his mouth so that he wouldn't have to say any more on the topic.

"Well, isn't it better to know the truth than just spread a rumor that she's pregnant?" he questioned with the tone he always used when he knew he was right.

"Yes, but," he stalled, trying to find a reason to not have to ask such a painfully awkward question to a girl he'd already been humiliated in front of and latching onto something that might work, "then you have to ask Ivan for confirmation."

"Alright, fine, we'll do it this afternoon," Matt said with a shrug, unconcerned by the potential danger he could be putting himself in by asking that question to Ivan. Then he remembered that they were on the hockey team together, and Ivan actually liked Matt as far as he knew. Though, it was hard for Al to tell with Ivan sometimes, honestly.

"Good luck," Antonio said, patting Matt once on the shoulder and giving him a grin.

"I don't think she's actually pregnant though," he said with a shrug before eating a mouthful which he continued talking through, "I don't think they've even had sex."

"Really?" Francis asked, "I always thought they'd be really kinky after hours."

"Yeah, but you think that about everyone," Gilbert pointed out, waving around his hand with his half eaten sandwich still in his grasp, "You thought I was doing it with Elizabeta last year."

"You weren't?" he asked, sounding mock surprised and disappointed.

"Yeah, no, never," he replied, taking a definitive bite of his sandwich afterwards.

"Besides," Matt said, breaking up that topic of conversation, "when have you ever seen them even kiss?"

"Well, they're kissing now," Antonio said, pointing away from where they were sitting. They all whirled around to see it.

Their lips weren't touching by the time Alfred had caught sight of them. They were standing by the doorway from the cafeteria to the hallway, and no one around them seemed to be paying them any attention. His hand was on her neck and her hands were on his waist. He was bent over her, and her face was angled up towards his. They really did look like they had just kissed, but they didn't do that. They wouldn't stand in the middle of the cafeteria and lunch with, and Alfred only had to glance a little to the left, a security guard less than ten feet from them. He couldn't see much of what they were doing from that distance, but they seemed sad and it looked like he was comforting her. When Ivan then ran his hand slowly through the hair around her ear, Alfred knew he was comforting her.

"Well, something happened," Matt said suddenly.

Ivan then glanced away from his girlfriend, like he knew they were watching them. They all whipped their heads back to their food. "That was close," Gilbert said before stuffing more food into his mouth.

"So you two are going to ask them this afternoon?" Antonio asked.

"Yeah, and we promise to tell you guys tomorrow," Alfred answered with a nod.

By the end of the day and the hour of asking came upon him, Alfred felt like he had swallowed a mixture of water and cornstarch, the kind of mix that was soft to the touch until it got hit too fast and practically turned solid. Any time he thought about asking Audrey, it was like he'd accidently smacked his stomach and caused it to solidify. It was just all so awkward, and he'd embarrassed himself in front of her enough. It was one thing to discuss lightheartedly a rumor born, hypothetical pregnancy, and an entirely different and mortifying one to ask a female friend if they were indeed pregnant.

He decided that the best way to stop it was obviously to just ask her about it straight up. He knew which answer he wanted to her, and he knew that would be the one he would get. Audrey was smart. She was one of those kids who could get into any college they wanted to and were set on the merit scholarship front. She wouldn't really be pregnant. Lunch was just a joke, and everything people were saying was a stupid rumor. She'd probably laugh at him, but Matt was right. It was better to know the truth from her. It would be awkward, but he'd know she was actually alright and not pregnant.

"Hey, Audrey," he greeted her once he'd spotted her in the hallway.

"What Alfred?" she asked, and he was surprised that she sounded tired. She wasn't what he would call a lively person, but vitriolic could be its own sort of enthusiasm he supposed.

"Do you mind if I ask you something?" he asked, fiddling with the hem of his jacket to distract himself from the awkwardness of the question he was about to ask her.

"What?" she asked again, giving him a glare that didn't seem to be what it used to.

"It's kind of personal," he warned, rocking back and forth on his feet. It was best to give her a heads up on these sorts of things.

"What?" she asked, her tone bordering that of a growl.

"Are you pregnant?" he asked, suddenly managing to spit out the question.

She straightened her back and raised her head, giving him as level a gaze as she could with their height difference. He couldn't stop himself from thinking that she had probably practiced the look on Ivan. He didn't expect the words out of her mouth at all. "Why?" she asked, "Do you want to call me a whore, too?"

"What? No!" he said immediately, "Who even said that?"

He couldn't think of two more distantly separated words than Audrey and whore, except for Audrey and slut. Why would she even ask him that?

"Hm," she twisted her lips into a grimace, "Let me think, seven people."

"They must not have known you well," he said, hoping that would be a joke and relieve the tension he could feel building inside of his torso. It came out wrong, and his voice sounded pathetic to his own ears. He coughed into his hand to cover it up.

"All seven have been in more than one class with me since freshman year, three have sat with me at lunch, and two have done group projects with me," she listed off hollowly, crossing her arms and still almost glaring at him.

"They must have been joking," he said, not believing someone could say something like that to this girl.

"It's never a joke," she snapped, "Not when they know I've been dating Ivan for over two years. Years, Alfred, years!"

"How can they say that?" he asked, not understanding what was going on, it was too strange and surreal, "It's utter bullshit. You're not like that!"

"To them that doesn't matter," she said, anger so obviously apparent now that he knew what to be looking for, "Everything I've ever done or said previously is insignificant to the fact of what's in my uterus."

"You really are pregnant?" he asked, taking a step away and feeling the information literally sink into his head. The cornstarch mix hardened again. There was something terribly wrong with the universe because this sort of thing didn't actually happen in real life. His friends didn't get pregnant.

"Yeah, I am," she spat viciously at him before turning around and walking away.

"Wait, wait," he said, easily catching up to her, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

"What does it matter if you're sorry," she snapped, "You can't fix this."

"I know, but I made you mad," he said, feeling worse now that she was rounding on him, "Sorry."

"It's not your fault, it just pisses me off," she grumbled, walking again, but not fast enough to be trying to get away from him. He walked beside her.

"I understand," he told her, thinking of how pissed off he'd be if someone had leveled accusations like that at him.

"No, you don't," she said, shaking her head and pushing back her hair, "You, quite frankly, don't understand a damn thing."

"What do you mean?" he asked, thinking he had his head wrapped pretty decently around the situation by that point.

"This isn't just an inaccurate insult. I've had only one sex partner, and I've only had sex once. They wouldn't be calling me a whore for that. This isn't because I'm a bad person that I've done other terrible things and having sex is just the tip of the iceberg. It's not because I dress scantily or whatever else," she said, biting her lip once before continuing, "It's because I'm pregnant. They wouldn't have even known I'd had sex if I hadn't gotten pregnant. They're calling me a whore because I made one mistake. I'm a whore because I'm pregnant. My grades don't matter, my work doesn't matter, my personality doesn't matter, my reputation doesn't matter, my intelligence doesn't matter. None of that exists anymore. I'm not a person, I'm a baby carrier. That, they're alright with calling a whore."

"That's…" he didn't even know what to say to that for a moment, "so fucking messed up."

"And to think, if it hadn't been me, you would have done the same," she said, almost off-handedly.

"What?" he said, a little outraged at the accusation, "No, I wouldn't have."

"Oh, really?" she asked, edge fully returned to her voice, "Just think about any time you've seen a pregnant girl and remember what you thought about her."

"I thought-!" he began to argue, but paused a moment to really consider what he'd thought about other pregnant teens. Most of the ones he had seen were featured on television, and he hadn't thought highly of them at all.

"Yeah, you thought that," she said, tone still biting. She turned on her heel and walked away, and he didn't follow. He couldn't with the cornstarch having battered its way into his throat and over his tongue. He couldn't breathe, felt terrible, and she was right. He hadn't called any of them whores, but he had thought that of them. He hadn't considered anything more about them than that they were pregnant. He was wrong and he was horrible for it. He ran his hands over his face, wondering what he was supposed to do now that he'd learned something new about himself that he didn't like.

Alfred sat down at his usual place at lunch the following day, but without his usual greeting to his friends. "Hey," Francis greeted him instead, "What's the news?"

"Audrey's pregnant," he said blandly, not bothering to sugar coat anything.

"Wait, seriously?" Gilbert asked, leaning around Francis to look at him, "I thought that was just some stupid joke."

"It's not, she's seriously pregnant," he told them, absent mindedly eating bits of his food.

"Is she going to get an abortion?" Antonio asked, sounding unnaturally toned down and serious for once.

"I didn't ask her about that," he said, drawing back slightly. The question hadn't popped into his head at all during the conversation, "Everyone knows about it now anyways. It's kind of messed up in general."

"What is?" Francis asked, giving him a weird look.

"It's just," he sighed, delaying the moment when he had to explain the end of the conversation, "people have been calling her a whore just because she's pregnant. She made a mistake, got pregnant and now she's called a whore by people who know her. She's probably being called a whore behind her back too. She's not a whore though, and it's bad and wrong."

"I always thought only idiots got pregnant," Gilbert added in as he chewed thoughtfully on a bite of his sandwich, "but Audrey isn't an idiot. Neither is Ivan."

"She isn't the only one that's dealing with this shit though," Matthew said, quietly interjecting into the conversation.

"There's something going on with Ivan, too?" Francis asked.

Matt looked pained by what he was about to say, "He's a mess. He looked better when he got his knee sliced open on the ice last year."

"Is it really that bad?" Gilbert asked, sitting up straight in his seat.

"Yeah, he has no idea what to do with a kid on the way," he said, "He loves Audrey, and I mean he seriously loves her, but he doesn't want a kid yet. Can you imagine having to prepare for a kid right now? Audrey wants to keep it, and he's not just going to let her take care of it by herself. I don't know how, but he wouldn't do that to her."

"She's going to keep it?" Alfred asked, feeling the cornstarch mix in his stomach again, "Why would she do that?"

"I don't know, she's a girl!" Matt snapped and took a moment to just take deep breaths, "Ivan doesn't want it though. He made we swear not to tell her that. He thinks he's fucked up big time."

"Well, he kind of has," Gilbert said with a shrug, "but it isn't just his fault."

"So what? They talked about it and didn't come to a decision?" Antonio asked, looking like he was puzzling things out.

"I guess. I didn't ask for a blow by blow of what's happened since they had sex," Matt said, giving the other boy a weird look.

"Well, this sucks," Alfred said, placing his arms on the table.

"You're not the one having a kid," Gilbert pointed out.

"I know, but they are. What are the rest of us supposed to do when even the goody two shoes get pregnant?" he asked.

"Not make the same mistake," Matt said with a shrug.

France asked, "Should we do something about it? You know, like see if we can help out."

"You really think they'll want our help?" Antonio asked, sounding hopeful and excited at the prospect.

"I don't know, but we can offer it. We can at least help them out for the last few days in school," he answered with a shrug.

"That's not going to help much," Matt said, "They're having a baby, not a final. It's not going to go away once school ends and a few days of help are not going to make a difference."

"So, we just sit on the side lines?" Al asked, feeling a little disappointed that this was their only choice.

"Well, we can't exactly do anymore or any better than they can," he said with a shrug.

"Right," he agreed, glad that he wasn't in their situation yet disappointed and miserable that they were. He admitted to himself that he couldn't do much more than keep in touch and wish them well and that he had to be content with that.

* * *

I don't really have the time to say anything about this, but be aware of your thoughts and actions. Part of the reason I'm writing this story is because sometimes the fandom can take pregnancy a little too lightly.


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